Voicemail requires sender to press pound (#) ?!?!?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 21, 2007 Posts: 4

I just got my Vonage VOIP line enabled today.

Apparently a caller must press the # key at the end of a voice message or the message will not take. Is there any way around this? I think requiring that the # key be pressed--or the voice mail is lost--is INSANE! On no other system have I ever had to press anything at the end of leaving a voice message--I just hang up.

I figure that I'm going to lose most of my voice messages unless I emphasize in my outgoing message that you have to press #. I know that there's a recorded voice at the end of my outgoing message explaining this but, frankly, people tend to ignore that.

I shouldn't have to formulate my outgoing message to make sure the caller understands some unique quirk of the Vonage voicemail system.

Is anyone else as annoyed by this as I am?

Posts: 429 · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:29 pm Post subject:

I've had Vonage for a year and a half and this is the first that I have read about this. I've never had somebody tell me about this when they have called, nor have I tried calling my voicemail with another phone. I'll look into it and tell you so you know if this is an isolated problem for you or standard procedure.

Posts: 879 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Nov 05, 2005 Posts: 879

Although the message says to press # to send your voicemail, it's not required.

Posts: 1320 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1320

That is correct you don't have to press the # key. If they do press it they have more options, like listen to the message they recorded, or mark this message urgent, like every message isn't urgent.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 21, 2007 Posts: 4

I've left myself numerous messages (from other phones, of course) without hitting the # key afterwards--none of them are saved. When I hit the # key, they are saved. I've called customer service twice--they have confirmed that you have to hit the # key or the message will not be saved.

Why only me?

Posts: 1320 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1320

Just called my vonage number and never press the # key and I had an email stating I had a voice mail.

Posts: 429 · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:16 pm Post subject:

I can't get a hold of anybody to call me and verify at the moment. I'm outside the country and I don't want to pay to call my Vonage line from another phone here. I will post my results when I can verify with someone.

Posts: 174 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jun 12, 2006 Posts: 174

Over 700 voice mails received in my more than a year with Vonage, none has required a # to end. Yes, as another poster mentioned, ending with a # gives the caller more options, but is not required. If you are certain you are losing messages, you have some sort of problem. I do not doubt what is happening to you, but it is absolutely NOT a normal Vonage thing.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 21, 2007 Posts: 4

Yesterday I left my friend who has Vonage VoIP a message and did NOT press # at the end--she never got the message. Today I did the same--she DID get the message. She says that over the years she has occasionally been told that someone left her a message that she did not get.

So, here are the facts:

1) I've called Vonage tech support 3 times--each of them said a caller HAS to press # or the message will not be saved (try calling and asking them yourself).

2) When I tested my voicemail yesterday, messages I left from my cell phone and skype were NOT delivered when I did not end the call with a #. When I ended the call with a #, they WERE delivered.

3) My friend usually gets messages that aren't ended with a #, but not always.

4) A lot of people apparently get all or most of their messages that aren't concluded with a #. However, isn't it possible that an occasional message is lost? One might not realize it....

In any case, it's ridiculous that the party line from Vonage is that a caller has to press # at the end of a message.

Posts: 163 · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:35 pm Post subject:

This has been rumored and discussed here many times.

I just did a test. Called the local access number. Don't believe you can do this from your own phone line but from somewhere else you put in your mailbox and you get your voice greeting.

Left myself 10 messages and hung up each time. Every message was received in my voice mail.

Its absolutely not true IMHO and in my testing. I once thought this myself and my first voicemail greeting said something like press # when finished but stopped that quickly because you do not need it.

Of course the only problem is that you don't know what you don't know so you won't know if a message wasn't saved but my guess is that its a vonage problem more than a voicemail problem if it happens.